Friday, July 10, 2009

I Can Haz Synergy

In late May, the popular humor site ICanHazCheezburger announced that it wanted to bring its fans together for a Seattle Mariners baseball game. Last night, more than 1,200 fans of Cheezburger’s family of sites crammed into three entire upper-deck sections of Safeco Field, with some traveling from across the country to hang out with other fans.

Think about this from both sides. The team at ICanHazCheesburger just got their fans to pay to attend an event together, an event that generated a ton of buzz for the brand and is sure to garner significant post-event PR and pass-along from those who attended.

The Mariners, on the other hand, just sold three sections worth of upper deck tickets that may have gone empty otherwise (let alone revenue from concessions, souvenirs, etc).

Sounds like a win for both sides.

Your business likely tends to look like one or the other – either you have a business with fans or customers, or you have a venue (a sports arena, restaurant, hotel, conference center, whatever) that isn’t always full.

How could you court the other business to make a win-win? The opportunities seem endless…